Wednesday, 30 May 2012

Wednesday, 23 May 2012

We had planned to stay at kinchega national park near Menindee, but it was still flooded. But we found fantastic bush camping along Lake Menindee, at the Top Lakes. It was great Fun swimming in the lake, although the water was cold.

Overnight stop in a caravan park in broken hill to restock and refresh.

Onto Mutawintji National Park, which we had been to on another trip so we wanted to go back and spend more time. The girls had their first bush walk since starting this trip and they didn't do too badly. Jess wasn't so keen on staying in the 'back pack' for long but Savannah showed us her bush walking skills. Of course though, Savannah wanted to be in the back pack and Jess wanted to walk, so it was slow going at times.

We spent mothers day at Mutawintji so Glenn cooked a campfire roast with a lovely bottle of red. And it was a great night to sit out under the stars by the fire once the kids had gone to bed.

While at Mutawintji we met a lovely older couple who the kids gravitated to. They had 8 grand kids back at home so our kids were making them feel 'at home' as they said. So it was a somewhat sociable camp.

Roadside stop north of wilcannia, which was a very popular spot for caravans but we were keen to get out of there the next morning.

We hadn't long set out on our day's journey when we came across a truck which had rolled on its side into a roadside ditch. The first on scene, Amy called the emergency services on the satellite phone, while Glenn pulled the driver from the cabin. THANK GOD he was fine, albeit very shaken.

Gundabooka national park was a great camp to pull into after a big day. Another beautiful park, we did a great walk with the kids and were able to complete it! We saw a rock waterhole and fantastic aboriginal rock art.

Bourke Kidman Camp Resort was next and the caravan park had 2 gorgeous pools, which were FREEZING, but we still had to swim in them. Looking forward to warmer weather and warmer water.

A fantastic couple of days on a 430,000acre cattle station managed by Amy's cousin. The farm is about 3 hours west of Charleville. Amazing scenery. Thanks Dale and Amanda for your generous hospitality.

Saturday, 19 May 2012

After an early get away from our overnight stop, Amy noticed a truck on its side in the ditch on the road to Cobar. We didn't really believe it to start with, but turned around and pulled up to see a guy trying to get out of the cabin. We both kicked into gear with Amy calling the emergency services on our Sat phone and Glenn checking out the driver.
Thank goodness he was ok and Glenn helped him out of the cabin.

Thursday, 17 May 2012

Gundabooka is a great national park 60km south of Bourke. The whole family managed the walk to the rock art. Beautiful scenery. The kids first taste of Aboriginal rock paintings. We spent 2 nights in the peaceful camp ground.

Final goodbye to the official start of our holiday and
now we are trekking off into the 'real' part of our camping adventure. A big
day of driving to Wagga Wagga and freezing when we arrived!Less then two degrees overnight and ice on the camper when we woke up. Imagine us
standing outside the camper having our breakfast and we could not feel our toes
or fingers!

An overnight camp near Hay then onto Balranand for
supplies and clothes washing in the local laundromat. Already !

Great to be heading into outback NSW and big horizons.
Destination - Mungo NP. Such an amazing place to visit. We had a look through
the historic Woodshed, 'pirate ship' (also known as a viewing platform but
perhaps more aptly named by Savannah), the lunettes (or 30km wall of sand
dunes), a short walk (short not by choice, as you can imagine with two restless
kids) and playing in the sand dunes.

It is so Great to see the kids spotting 'emoos',
kangaroos and the moon. Magical Full moon while at Mungo. The emu has become a
bit of a theme to our trip so far. Many, many repeats of John Williamson's 'Old Man Emu'
song while driving in the car.

Thank goodness for play dough , cars and bubbles for
quiet times while in camp.

The temperature has started to slowly warm up, but we are
getting the hang of sleeping in cold temps overnight.

Monday, 7 May 2012

Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Cold beer on arrival, a bottle of red, sun chair and road atlas to plan our next move. Now this has really set a bench mark for welcoming weary travelers. A great opportunity for Glenn and his Dad to finish off the last few jobs on the car and camper, to set us up for the rest of the trip.

Gran and Poppy had a great time showing the kids the possums, cooking fruit cakes, bike riding, playing in the beach and fish and chips at the local boat shed - what a great spot.

Bec , Sasha, Zara and Zac. We still didn't get to crack open the camper because we were staying in their house. Going soft?

They took us to see their house they are building in Jindabyne - very impressive - more like a conference centre. :) Amazing views of the snow capped mountains. Looking forward to visiting next time in their gorgeous new house.

About Us

We are on an adventure around Australia - Mum, Dad and two kids under four years of age. There are a few comforts for the 4 of us, like a camper trailer, new camping chairs, bikes for the kids and real coffee (not for the kids though...). It is lots of fun being outdoors with the kids for the greater part of 2012.